Page 13 of Billionaire Temptations

“Emma, it’s Justin.”

“I know who it is, Justin. Why are you calling?”

I looked at Max, and he stared back with narrowed eyes.

“I heard you moved to New York to go to that design school or whatever. Why did you do that?”

“Gee, Justin, maybe because it has always been a lifelong dream of mine. You would know that if you ever paid attention to me in our relationship.” I put it on speaker and set the phone down. I had to check on the chicken.

“I paid attention to you, and, by the way, you never paid me for that X-box game you purposely broke.”

Before the laughter could escape him, Max covered his mouth.

“I’ll send a check in the mail.”

“I miss you, Emma. I really do,” he spoke in a sad tone.

“Sorry about that, Justin. Listen, I need to go. My dinner is ready. Do me a favor, and please don’t call me anymore.”

“Is that what you truly want?” he asked.

“Yes. I’m living life in New York now. I’m starting over. I suggest you do the same.”

“Goodbye, Emma.”

A single tear rose up in my eye, and Max got up from his stool and walked over to me.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. He’s an idiot and has a lot of growing up to do.”

“Go sit down, and I’ll put your food on the plate and bring it to you.”

“I’m fine, Max. I can?—”

He placed his hand on my shoulder. “Emma, go sit down. Please.”

I took my glass of wine and the bottle and sat down at the table. Max put the chicken on a plate and fixed my baked potato with a little bit of butter, salt, and pepper. He set it down in front of me with a knife and a fork and took the seat across from me.

“Would you like a bite?” I cut into the chicken.

“Nah. I’m full. How long have you and Justin been broken up?”

“Six months.”

“How long did you date?”

“A little over a year.”

“Wow. So, you broke his X-box game?” He smirked.

I took a bite of my potato and nodded my head. “He wouldn’t listen to me. That was the biggest problem in our relationship. I would talk, and he’d zone out. He was either watching sports or playing his damn X-box. He didn’t have a job, and he never took me out. Even when I offered to pay, he still wouldn’t go.”

“He sounds like a loser.”

“He is. I got so fed up that I couldn’t take it anymore. I went over to his apartment, and he was playing X-box. I asked him to turn it off because I needed to talk to him. He told me that it was cool and just to start talking. So I did, and he basically ignored me. I told him we were over, and he told me not to be silly. He never looked at me once the whole time I was talking to him. Rage got the best of me, so I took the disc out of the X-box and stomped on it until it broke into several pieces.”

Max chuckled. “What did he do?”

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